Robert Edwin House
Ideology "I have no interest in abusing others, just as I have no interest in legislating or otherwise dictating what people do in their private time. Nor have I any interest in being worshipped as some kind of machine god messiah. I am impervious to such corrupting ambitions. But autocracy? Firm control in the hands of a technological and economic visionary? Yes, that Vegas shall have." Mr. House, having lived a long and successful life, sees it as his mission to return New Vegas to its former pre-War glory as a crown jewel of technological innovation and the bright neon paradise of business and fortune. Having lived in the New Vegas Strip prior to the Great War, he was taken in by what he saw as the unstoppable technological progress and an economic boom unimpeded by the problems and unrest that plagued much of pre-War America. In his youth, he attended the Commonwealth Institute of Technology (an elite university in Boston which would later become the creators and foremost manufacturer's of synthetic organisms) and would soon earn his reputation as an industrialist and inventor. Although losing his inheritance to his half-brother, he would nevertheless go on to found RobCo Industries as his first company in 2042 in his hometown of Las Vegas, where he would use his scientific prowess and business acumen to turn it into one of the most profitable and innovative corporations in the United States. Among many of House's business projects, RobCo would become most famous for many commercially successful joint ventures with other companies such as General Atomics and Vault-Tec which would lead to the development of the Personal Information Processor (Pip-Boy), Protectron, Sentry bots, Eyebots and even Liberty Prime. With these commercially successful products and lucrative contracts, House managed to invest in and gain control of many other companies in and around Las Vegas including the Lucky 38 Hotel & Casino, the H&H Tool Company, REPCONN Aerospace and Abraxodyne Chemical, transforming Mr House into the multi-billionaire CEO of a vast economic empire. Due to his pragmatism and obsessions with equations and variables, he spent many years running mathematical diagnostics and calculations of world events in an attempt to predict the probability of future outcomes, focusing specifically on the events influencing the contemporary global political and economic strife. By 2065, after receiving warnings of a potential catastrophe from informants within the US military and analysing the results of his own projections, he would come to the mathematical certainty that the world would be devastated by atomic war within 15 years as a result of the United State's escalating involvement in the Resource Wars. He spent his remaining years prior to the Great War heavily investing his vast treasury of resources ac-culminated by his enterprise into constructing defenses and rebuilding his home into a fortress that would survive the breakout of war. To achieve his ambitious goal, House would secretly oversee the construction of many advanced technological defenses and weaponry, using networked mainframes to forcibly transmit disarm codes to 59 Chinese nuclear warheads to neutralize them before impact, as well as laser cannons mounted on the Lucky 38 which would destroy another 9: something he admits to be a "sub-optimal performance" due to the absence of vital software upgrades from the Platinum Chip. After redeveloping the Lucky 38 into a personal castle, he would preserve himself in a personal chamber by using highly advanced life support technology, and connect himself to a vast computer database. Centuries later, he would emerge from the hibernation and establish himself as "chief executive" and autocrat of New Vegas, uniting various tribes under his rule to become the Three Families, signing a treaty with an expanding NCR and paying sums for scavengers to launch expeditions in an effort to find the Platinum Chip, repurposing his vision from mere business into rebuilding the known world. His vision of autocracy and disillusionment with democratic society stems from his resentment towards the attitudes and actions of the increasingly desperate and jingoistic pre-War United States, whose decline was precipitated by the failure to adequately research and invest in alternative technologies]], with the result of much of the economy relying almost entirely on the steady supply on the rapidly dwindling deposits of crude oil well into the 21st century. This reliable supply was threatened when, in 2052, rising oil prices caused a major economic crisis as many small nations entered bankruptcy, which prompted military action as the world powers scrambled for the last remaining oil deposits, initiating the Resource Wars and escalating into the much closer to home Sino-American War. This would, in line with Mr. Houses' calculations, almost certainly spell doom for the city he had invested so much into as well as America as a whole. He fundamentally places a large amount of blame on humanity for what he sees as a lack of foresight in decision-making, referring to the war between the Legion and the NCR as "two snarling dogs fighting over a curve of bone, perhaps the rib of their master, long-dead" due to the attempts to take Hoover Dam and assert control over the region. He further disparages both groups as nothing more than "regurgitations of the past", drawing parallels between the two as attempts to revive past civilizations rather than offer a palpable future. He derides the NCR as a "society of customers" lead by scheming leaders who wish to take Vegas out from under him, whilst showing disgust at the Legions' practise of slavery and general brutality. He further regards the Brotherhood of Steel, a group with pre-War roots, as little more than a fanatical band of "emotionally unstable techno-fetishists" who have learned nothing from humanities' mistakes, and terrorize the wastes under what he sees as a nonsensical attempt at appearing as "noble paladins on crusade, preserving mankind's technology in a benighted age." Seeing them as a direct threat to his authority due to his extensive use of technology the Brotherhood would consider unfit for anyone else to possess. In retrospect, he views humanity's capacity]] for destruction as an obstacle for any sort of attempt at stability and future success, and sees democracy as an expired idea championed by the ignorant who fail to recognize his achievements in preserving not only the last place untouched by the devastation of the Great War, but also the rail in which human civilization can be transported into a new scientific era. As his short term strategy, he intends to use the Courier as an agent to attain the Platinum Chip which would allow him to upgrade his Securitron Army and gather certain strategic allies to be called upon during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, as well as the destruction of those he believes will undermine his authority. He further wishes to bolster his Army with surplus units stored under Fortification Hill in order to gain a numerical advantage when the time comes to push out the NCR and declare the 'Free Economic Zone of New Vegas' as a sovereign entity. His long term plan requires a methodical approach to the NCR, theorizing that NCR citizens would place the blame on President Kimball and General Oliver if they survived rather than seeking vengeance against New Vegas, thus lending strategic support to the NCR. Should he succed in his plans, he would promote the Courier as his top Lieutenant and invest in the Strip's burgeoning tourist economy, galvanizing his newfound independence and economic growth to embark on a series of grandoise scientific projects, echoing his pre-War business ventures as CEO of RobCo industries. Using his technical and scientific expertise, he spends much of his time perusing and analyzing his internal databases to conjure grand plans for developing and commercializing newer technologies, such as space travel, life extension and even plans for constructing colonial shipping to be used for the purpose of establishing human colonies on other planets. A brand of techno-futurism he wishes to sell through his personal Securitron army, alongside intricately planned and calculated treaties and alliances with other factions vying for the Mojave, selectively terminating those deemed a threat.